We greet you warmly in the joy of the Resurrection! Thank you to all who participated in the celebration of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Pascha. Your prayers, concelebration, and the multitude of ways in which you helped to prepare for the feast made it a particularly beautiful celebration this year. Thank you all!
Photos from this year’s celebrations can be found here.
On Friday evening, March 24, the eve of the feast, our parish gathered to celebrate this feast with a festive Vesperal Liturgy. Following the service, some of us joined together to continue celebrating over a relaxed lenten dinner at the nearby diner. Thank you to all who made this celebration so beautiful. Below is an explanation of the feast from the OCA website:
Continue reading Celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation
View the schedule of services for the beginning of Lent.
The lenten spring has come – the light of repentance!
O brothers, let us cleanse ourselves from all evil, crying out to the Giver of Light:
Glory to Thee, O Lover of man.
Let us begin the fast with joy! Let us prepare ourselves for spiritual effort!
Let us purify our souls and cleanse our flesh.
Let us abstain from passion as we abstain from food,
Let us rejoice in the spirit and persevere with love,
That we may all see the Holy Passion of Christ, Our God
And rejoice in spirit at the Holy Pascha!
Included below is the archpastoral message of His Eminence, Archbishop Michael, on this, the beginning of Great Lent.
Continue reading The Beginning of Great Lent 2017
We are extremely saddened by the news of the repose of +Vitali Matveichik, on Sunday, January 22.
Vitali is the son of Brenda and the late +Michael Matveichik, who adopted Vitali as a young child and brought him from Russia to the U.S. to receive life-saving heart surgeries through the “Gift of Life” program. Vitali reposed on Sunday, two days shy of his 29th birthday, from complications relating to the heart issues he continued to struggle with.
A wake will be held on Thursday, January 26, from 2-4 PM, and 7-9 PM, at Roma Funeral Home (539 William Floyd Parkway, Shirley, NY 11967). Fr. John will celebrate a memorial service (panikhida) at 8:00 PM.
We grieve with Brenda and all Vitali’s loved ones who now feel the pain of separation, and we join them in holding Vitali up in prayer before Our Lord. May his memory be eternal!
On Sunday, December 11, the parish community of St. Andrew’s was filled with joy in celebrating the baptism, chrismation, and reception into the Holy Orthodox Faith of the servant of God, Eric, who took the name John in baptism.
